Perfect weather conditions in hill country means it’s time to do some hikes. I just had to pick up two places in my list and execute. First day it was Hanthana range and few of my lakdasun friends did accompany me on that superb hike. For my next day execution Only Nishan said yes. So next day early morning both of us got in to a Padiyapelella bus and headed towards Rikillagaskada where we had our breakfast. We were going to climb a unique mountain range in the central hills. Kukulagala which overlooks Rikillagaskada town like a lonely giant.

It was one of those weekends when you have nothing to do but out of nowhere you get a chance to visit some place that is out of bounds for many thanks to one of your close friends. That’s exactly what happened when I was without a thing to do on the 18-19 Oct weekend when Ana called out of blue moon asking if I’d like to join him for a relaxing holiday at Rozella. I jumped with both the feet and we left for Rozella on the 18th morning around 4.15am.

It is November the month before the official Sri pada season and I just couldn’t resist not visiting Adams peak before the crowds took over. I and Thinu were wondering whether to go to Sinharaja or Adams peak and suddenly the weather seem to be settling off so we decided to do an off season hike. Early morning we arrived at Kuruwita where we had breakfast and took the first bus (6.10am) to Erathna and from there took a trishaw to Adawi kanda (there is a bus to Adavi kanda at 7.45am). Sharp at 7 we started the hike and off we went through the overgrown mana section. The humid environment started to cause few problems within no time but we proceeded continuously.

We turned left from the junction just before Paththini Devalaya and Bo tree on Panadura road coming from Ratnapura close to 38km post. We then crossed the wooden bridge over the Kalu River leading to Dumbara estate. Dumbara estate lies along the border between Ratnapura and Kalutara.

his is a special report on hot water springs of Sri lanka. This was a very tempting topic which made it so irresistible that I ended up visiting almost all of these remarkable sites in a short period. The hot lakdasun forum post was indeed my greatest guide on this venture. I would be adding few details on some hot water springs I visited during the past few years for the sake of completeness. Here are the documented hot water springs in Sri lanka.

I woke up and lowered the blanket covering me and a rain of needles hit my exposed skin. Oh dear, I’m in HP, it suddenly dawned on me. There was a light moving out of the room and it made me feel jittery. Getting out of the bed and landing my feet on the ground sent another dose of needles up my body. It was so cold (probably around 10-degrees) and I followed the light out of the room to find Ana already up and getting ready to make some coffee. The time had just gone 4.30am and I was shivering when I entered the kitchen. There wasn’t any sign of the bungalow keepers (they can’t have ever had their guests waking up at 4.30am) and I waited with my feet up for a steaming cup of coffee.

Atha and Prasa were still sound asleep and I went back to wake them up. It was very cold and we sipped at our scalding coffee hugging ourselves so tight. The caretakers got a shock when they appeared around 5.30am to see us up and about. I guess this was a great shock for them and they got very busy making our breakfast while we washed in the freezing water and got ready to leave while the sun was beginning his painting class towards the east.

It has been a few months since we did something adventurous and we were itching for some action. We were clear from the beginning on what we wanted to do; it had to be at least a 3day hike, away from civilization and most importantly we didn’t want a guide or a clear trail. Although we knew what we wanted finding a hiking trail that we like proved to be much more difficult than we initially imagined.

The best season to climb Kiribathgala is in the month of February… Usually villagers reserve February 4th to climb this mountain… And one can get the added advantage of proper footpath during February,(but still needed a local person) But I could not wait and decided to do it in month of October and waited till the morning showers were over. We were hoping to climb down before the evening showers….

If we decided to go Meemure from Bambarella across Kalupahana but we had to change that. Because we hadn’t clear information about that way. So we chose Knuckles way across Alugallena way. Dear brother Niroshan helped so much to reach this target to me. We were ready to this journey without any guide, but we had great information & guidance from Niroshan.

Knuckles Is my Second favourite Destination .I have been there for 7 times now. From a long period of time I needed to take my parents on a trip .So I was thinking about a scenic but a place with easy tracks. So did my dear friend SANKETHA. He also wanted to take his parents and family to a scenic but less adventurous place where everyone could enjoy without getting tired.